Mike Dean, from Heswall in The Wirrall, Cheshire and is in his seventh Premiership season. At 39, he is one of the Barclaycard Premiership's youngest referees, but the Merseyside shift supervisor turned full-time ref has already taken charge of a FA Community Shield and so should be undaunted by the league's multi-millionaire stars. Last season Mike was suspended by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL). He had got himself involved with Arbitros (Spanish for ‘referees’) Racing, an online horse racing syndicate, and an advert in the Racing Post read “Join Premiership referee Mike Dean in this exciting new venture.” This was against the terms of his contract, as he was using his status to his advantage.He also failed to request permission to get involved. He was suspended on the eve of Newcastle vs Bolton last season, which he was due to referee at St James’ Park, and was replaced by Steve Dunn. He was later suspended until 31st May, and returned to the Premiership in late August after coming home from a Turkey tournament.Ref Dean has been present at a number of key moments in Fulham's recent history. He was in-charge of the game against Wolves which ended our record breaking 10 game winning run in 1999-2000, he was in-charge of our first Premiership home game, he was in-charge of the game where Barthez out psyched Steed over a penalty, he was in-charge of the Middlesbrough game when Fulham scored two in the last few moments to take a draw with Gentleman Jim nearly bursting a blood vessel, the brawl at West Brom and most recently he was in charge of the delicious victory against the Blues of Fulham Broadway. We have won three of the seven premiership games Mr Dean has managed.

Referee Stats - 2006/2007

Ref Dean is behaving out of character this season with his lowest whistle useage rate in 6 seasons, his second highest yellow per match figure and his highest penalty figure.It seems Mr Dean's suspension following involvement in a horse racing syndicate is fading away as he is now the top penalty giver.

Mr. Dean's Av Premiership Ref Total Match Avg Pos Total Match Avg Games 17     13   Fouls 381 22.4 14th 319 25.3 Yellows 57 3.4 9th 41 3.3 Reds 4 0.2 4th 2 0.2 Penalties 9 0.5 1st 4 0.3 Fouls per Yellow - 6.7 6th - 7.8

So far this season Ref Dean is average in terms fouls and cards but is one of the less even-hand Premiership refs when it comes to pens. He loves home squads and hopefully that continues on Saturday.

Homer? (2006-2007) Total Home Away Total Games Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen 1 188 24 1 7 193 33 3 2 381 57 4 9 49% 42% 25% 78% 51% 58% 75% 22% - - - - Premiership Average 13 50% 42% 32% 67% 50% 58% 68% 38% 319 41 2 4